Brain Development Flashcards
How much brain growth is a baby born with?
25%
By age 2, what is the brain growth?
75%
Neurotransmitters
Chemical substances that communicate through a neuron
Neural Circuits
• Cluster of neurons working together to handle particular types of information
Myelination
- Infancy to adolescence in some areas in the brain until young adults
- layer of fatty, waxy cells
- On going pattern
- Growth patterns
Adolescent brain development
- Myelination of speech; motor centers
* development in pre-frontal cortex (moral judgment, reasoning)
Brain structure
- 2 hemispheres
- Forebrain
- Cerebral cortex
- Corpus collosum
- Temporal lobe
- Frontal lobe
- Occipital lobe
- Parietal lobe
Cerebral cortex
- layers of cells
- thinking
- language
- perception
Corpus collosum
• Connects left & right hemisphere
Temporal lobe
- hearing
- language
- visual
- some emotion
Frontal lobe (executive functioning)
- decision making skills
- higher order thinking
- plan, organize
- execute
- working memory
- language
- movement
- self-control
Occipital lobe
• visual
Parietal lobe
- spatial
- attention
- motor skills
Lateralization
- perceived specialties in right or left hemisphere
- left: speech, grammar
- right: humor, metaphor
Complex thinking happens with…
communication btwn. left & right hemisphere
Brain development in infancy
- born with 25% of brain growth
- a lot of fluid
- baby’s head should be protected
Shaken baby syndrome
- swelling & obstruction of the brain
* risk of death from brain injury
How do we get info of the brain?
- PET (Positron emission tomography)
- FMRI (functional magnetic response imagery)
- DTI (diffusion tensor imaging)
Child brain dev. (3-6 yrs old)
• rapid growth in frontal lobe
Child brain dev. (6-puberty)
• dramatic growth in temporal & parietal lobe
Brain plasticity
- brain is malleable
* brain responds to env. info
What happens in a deprived in env?
- depressed brain activity
- Roseinzweig & collegues: (results) rats in enriched (given toys, interactive) env. had cortex that were 4% larger than impoverished (isolated) env. rats
Dopamine
- Neurotransmitter
- Reward (to see & take action to move towards them) & pleasure system
- Regulates movement & emotional responses
- Dopamine deficiency: Parkinson’s disease, more susceptible to addiction
What is the average connection a neuron has?
3,000 connections
